Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Topics

Topics

Gay Bars


The modern gay rights movement began in a gay bar, and, for better and for worse, bars continue to hold a central place in the life of many gay New Yorkers.

It was actually illegal to serve liquor to homosexuals until 1967 when some early gay activists from the Mattachine Society challenged that regulation by the State Liquor Authority and prevailed in court. But harassment of the patrons in gay bars continued, and two years later, when the police raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, the patrons fought back for the next three nights. That is the event commemorated on the last Sunday of every June with the world's oldest and surely still largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride parade.

Lesbian bars have always been scarcer in New York and several were subjected to harassment by the State Liquor Authority into the 1980s by agents who claimed that these bars were refusing to serve men.

Today, almost four decades later, New York City is home to no less than 120 gay bars and clubs, more than anywhere in the world. As gay people have become more integrated into mainstream life, and booze has become a little less socially acceptable or desirable as the pretext for getting together in the gay world, all manner of other gay institutions have sprung up, from churches and coffeehouses to self-help groups and gay cruise ships. But establishments that serve liquor are still an integral component in the maintenance of positive gay identities, providing gays of a wide variety of backgrounds a safe space in which they are free to explore themselves, and each other.

There are complicated levels of irony then, to several current conflicts.

The most widely reported is between residents and youth on that very same iconic street where it all began.

Christopher Street, and the Christopher Street pier, have become a magnet for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, who celebrate late into the night. Nearby residents, who themselves mostly identify as LGBT, have been complaining bitterly about the collective boisterousness.

The controversy, playing out in the local community board, is the subject of some discussion in the bars that still line the street, with patrons taking different sides: A patron of Ty’s finds the kids “a little scary…and loud” while a patron at The Hangar says “they’re a part of our culture.”

A bouncer at Chi-Chiz, a gay bar one block from the pier in question, had a particular gripe: “As soon as the kids start fighting,” he said “the community wants to blame the bars, and that’s not fair. We’re tired of getting blame for [what] they do.”

Conflicts are occurring in other gay or “gay-friendly” neighborhoods as well. In the East Village, there have been a number of tussles between (LGBT) bar-goers and (LGBT) residents. In an effort to quell the noise, some bouncers have been known to yell even louder than the offending parties, compounding the problem. In Chelsea, irate neighbors have been known to throw used kitty litter on raucous loiterers, and it is not uncommon for the residents above the bustling Barracuda bar on 22nd Street to yell vulgarities at rowdy smokers on the street below.

 

Back From Iraq


Faced with homelessness, about forty veterans call Jason Ortiz each month looking for help. Ortiz is a caseworker at New Era Veterans, a residence for previously homeless veterans in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Most of the residents there left the military decades ago, Ortiz says. But recently about five of the 40 calls he gets every month are from veterans returning from Iraq.

Ortiz's voicemail has the same discouraging message for all those who dial his number: There is no more room.

It has been three years since the beginning of the current war in Iraq; it began March 19th, 2003. Thirty-five New York City residents have died there since then, and thousands more have served in either Iraq or Afghanistan and returned. Another 8,000 New Yorkers remain on active military duty. As they come home, some are suffering from physical wounds, emotional trauma, financial insecurity, and homelessness.

There are services that address these problems, but many feel they are inadequate. Whether they are or not, many veterans couldn't say, because they don't seek out what's available to them.

"We've been trained that asking for help is an admission that you've failed in some task," said Ricardo Singh of Black Veterans for Social Justice, a veteran himself. "Veterans as a group are usually very reluctant to ask for help."

TRAUMA

Soon after 9/11, Brooklyn native Henry Gomez, who was then 29 years old with a family of his own, quit his job as a computer consultant and joined the army, bringing his wife, his daughter and stepdaughter to an army base in Germany. There he was trained to operate anti-ballistic missile radar systems. In April 2003, Gomez arrived in Iraq. He spent the next 13 months in firefights with insurgents, guarding checkpoints, and checking the roads surrounding Baghdad for bombs.

War was difficult at first, said Gomez, but within a few months he had gotten used to combat. "You hear an explosion near you," he explained recently, "and it doesn't bother you anymore."

It has been almost a year since Gomez came back from Iraq, however, and he still has not gotten used to civilian life. His relationship with his family has suffered -- he is estranged from his wife and doesn't see his kids -- and he has been unable to hold a job.

"The whole thing was the worst experience I had ever been through," Gomez said. "Coming back,I found I was different."

Gomez may have had a harder time adjusting than many other veterans. But he is also something of an exception in another way; he asked for help. He was diagnosed and treated for post traumatic stress disorder at a Veterans Administration hospital, and sought assistance in finding housing from a private homelessness prevention group, Common Ground.

If each war has a signature illness, say veterans advocates, Iraq's is post traumatic stress disorder.

In Iraq, the constant threat of guerilla warfare means that soldiers can never relax. There is uncertainty about the length of tours of duty, and about whether soldiers leaving Iraq will have to return. All of these things make this war particularly trying emotionally.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one in five servicemen and women returning from Iraq suffer from psychological conditions. (The rate of Afghan veterans suffering from similar conditions is about one in nine). Veterans' advocates believe the actual number is even higher.

The idea that engaging in combat is damaging to one’s psyche is hardly new – soldiers have long been known to suffer from “shell shock” and “combat fatigue”. But Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was not defined as a specific medical condition until the Vietnam War. The Veterans Administration admits that it has not handled the psychological problems of past veterans well. It says it had learned it must focus on these problems, noting that it now spends $50 million annually nationwide on post-traumatic stress programs.

A federal report published last year (in pdf format), however, found that the Veterans Administration had not fully completed any of the 24 tasks that its own committee on post-traumatic stress disorder has recommended to improve clinical and education programs for returning veterans. The administration's committee also found that it was not prepared to handle an influx of new military veterans while maintaining services for those it is already caring for.

The veterans' hospital in the Bronx is seeing this influx: there has been such an increase psychological cases that its post-traumatic stress clinic is adding two psychologists to its eight person staff. Private veterans service organizations also say they are increasing numbers of veterans with such problems. But Rachel Yehuda, the director of the Bronx hospital's clinic, is frustrated that not everyone who needs help is asking for it.

"There's a significant number of Iraqi war veterans that are seeking treatment, though I suspect that it's not nearly as many as are in need," she said. "Not everybody comes home and rushes to a VA."

It was months before Gomez showed up at the Brooklyn veterans' hospital. Surprisingly, said a hospital spokesperson, he is one of only 69 recent veterans who have sought treatment. The Brooklyn and Manhattan veterans' hospitals say they have prepared for an influx of traumatized combat veterans, but to date only three percent of the 2,200 returning veterans who have registered for care at the two facilities have visited their post-traumatic stress clinics.

Critics of the Veterans Administration prod it to be more active in helping veterans -- making it easier for them to get the services they need, and even actively seeking them out. But in New York, advocates say, the federal government may actually soon make it harder for veterans to find care.

Like most health care providers, the Veterans Administration is facing financial difficulties. As a result, it is considering combining the services of the Manhattan and Brooklyn hospitals into a single facility. The Veterans Administration argues that it may make sense to close a hospital considering the amount of health care that now takes place in outpatient clinics, but others respond that closing facilities will only make it more likely that veterans' health problems will go untreated.

FINANCIAL INSECURITY

Veterans often come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This trend is continuing, according to the National Priorities Project, which found that in New York and across the country, residents of low-income counties make up a disproportionate amount of new military recruits.

While the pitch for joining the army includes references to job skills, skeptics point out that there isn't a strong civilian market for employees proficient in combat. Often, they say, veterans are unclear about how they will make a living after they are discharged. The military has long been criticized for failing to help veterans make this transition.

City officials are attempting to help veterans with the financial strain of returning to New York through housing programs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his state of the city address that the city would offer significant preferences to veterans when the city resells homes that the federal government has foreclosed upon. There are already property tax exemptions for veterans and for the parents of servicemen and women who have been killed; Hiram Monserrate, the head of the City Council's veterans committee, has proposed a bill that would require the city to advertise this benefit more effectively.

Currently, the city's signature employment program is to give preferences to veterans who apply for street vendor licenses. Officials say that it also helps veterans with job placement through its general homelessness prevention programs. Common Ground, a homelessness prevention organization, is combining housing aid with counseling for emotional problems and employment assistance. Gomez recently turned to the group, which is helping him rent an apartment in Bensonhurst.

But the scope of private programs is limited; Common Ground has been able to serve only 21 veterans since it started its program last August. Advocates say the city should create veteran-specific programs that both lead them to federal veterans benefits and serve to help them find employment opportunities in New York.

"We should have some resources available – some, because right now we have none – to provide these services," said Monserrate.

HOMELESSNESS

Those seeking evidence that the country is failing to fulfill its obligation to veterans, say advocates, need only to look at the huge number of veterans that end up homeless.

While they make up about nine percent of the population, veterans constitute 23 percent of the chronically homeless population. Nationwide, there are 200,000 homeless veterans on any given night, and over half a million veterans spend some time homeless over the course of a year. Eighty percent of them live in urban areas, and over three quarters have mental health problems, substance abuse problems, or both.

According to the Veterans Administration, there are 44,700 homeless veterans in New York State. There are no exact numbers on how many of those live in New York City, but advocates estimate that the total is between 15,000 and 20,000.

Homelessness, said John Driscoll of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, is generally the end result of multiple problems spinning out of control. There is a connection between the lack of supportive services and homelessness, he said, but this is not obvious immediately. It was eight years after Vietnam, he said, before Vietnam veterans began turning up for homeless services in significant numbers.

About two percent of homeless veterans seeking services have served in post 9/11 conflicts, according to the coalition, and Driscoll and other veterans advocates say it is too early to see recent veterans becoming homeless in large numbers. But they worry that the lack of visible evidence of a serious problem will make it hard to address the issues that cause veterans to become homeless today.

"You have all these veterans being created by this new war," said Ruth Shaffer of New Era Veterans, "and every indication is that they are at least as disturbed – if not more – than those from before."

 

 

311 + 3 : Adding Social Services


When three years ago this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched 311, which consolidated 40 different city hotlines into one, he said he expected it to be more than just a non-emergency alternative to the 911 phone line. He hoped it would be his legacy to the city.

“It will be a one-stop center for questions about any city service or program, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he announced in his 2003 State of the City address. “More than that, it'll be a 21st century management tool that lets us track and quantify just how well we're serving the people of New York.”

A year later, he declared himself delighted with the results – and so, he said, was everybody else: “New Yorkers have treated it like the greatest thing since egg creams…It’s made city government accessible and answerable to the people of New York -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Over the past three years, 311 has handled over 26 million calls, each one reaching a live operator, and the option of immediate translation services in 170 languages.

311 has had its critics, with complaints that were enumerated in a Gotham Gazette Issue of the Week last year, 311’s Growing Pains. Some of the criticism has been directed toward the pace of the system’s expansion to meet its growing popularity. Some say that community boards have been insufficiently integrated into the system, making it more difficult to tackle such localized issues as noise. Others complain of a rise in false complaints, or insufficient use of 311 data as a management tool, or too long a wait time to get an operator, or to get results.

The Bloomberg administration reports that in January, 2006, with some 1.2 million calls to 311, the average wait time for an operator was actually just five seconds.

And the third anniversary marks the beginning stages of an expansion that takes 311 in a new direction. Rather than just a center for referral to city government services, 311 will now include referrals to private, non-profit social service agencies.

211 Elsewhere, 311 Here

Nationally, such information is usually disseminated through a "211" telephone number. But 311 has proven so successful in New York City that City Hall has opted to offer both services by calling 311.

There are an estimated 27,000 non-profit agencies that serve at least two million New Yorkers daily. But the initial effort, a collaboration between the city’s Department of Information Technology and Communications, which manages the 311 program, and the United Way of New York City , will rely on the United Way’s database, which includes only about 2,500 such agencies.

Social Service Expansion

311 currently does provide some social service information, but only when the city itself is the service provider or has a formal relationship with a non-profit organization. Gary Wartels, a consultant for United Way on the 311 expansion project, clarifies how this works. If a 311 caller today requests information about after school programs, they are referred to the New York City Department of Youth and Family Development. With the expansion of 311, the caller interested in after-school programs would also learn about the offerings of the Partnership for After School Education.

If a caller today reports living under threat of domestic violence, 311 would refer them to the non-profit Safe Horizon , which has a contract with the city government. With the expansion of 311, such a caller, depending on her circumstances, could receive information about child care and job training as well.

When, How Much, Who Pays

The city plans for a partial roll-out of the expanded 311 this year, with a complete roll-out by July 2007. The United Way's business plan estimates that the cost of the initial phase is approximately $14 million, with total costs approaching $60 million for maintenance of the service for three years after it is launched. The balance between the city and state share of these costs remains unclear. (According to Wartels of United Way, the State Senate has approved $3.9 million in the next budget to expand 311; there is no Assembly action yet.) The city's capital budget for fiscal year 2007 includes $15 million for upgrading the 311 system, which indicates a commitment to this expansion. The business plan also assumes that private sector support will be available for maintenance and enhancement of this service .

Technological And Other Challenges

The technological challenges in enhancing 311 are significant. The phone system needs to be scaled up to handle a new influx of calls; current plans call for construction or rental of another 311 call center. The United Way’s database of non-profit organizations must be significantly expanded. Another step would be integration of the database into the resources already available to 311 operators. In addition, 311 currently uses visual mapping technology to pinpoint clusters of similar calls by neighborhood. This capability would also be necessary for these social service or 211-type calls.

The City Council's Committee on Technology in Government held the first public hearing last month to answer questions about the proposed expansion of 311. While everyone supported the goal of increased access to social service information, one concern that arose was about the ability of 311 operators to handle highly sensitive calls for assistance. Obviously, a city resident who calls looking for somewhere to sleep has different needs than someone who calls to report a pothole.

Although staffing concerns for handling such sensitive calls are legitimate, those in charge of 311 maintain, they are not insurmountable.

Marcus Banks is a librarian at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. 

 



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years